In this howto I will show you how to create a XML Schema from an annotated JAXB class using the maven jaxb-schemagen plugin.

STEP 1:  Annotate your domain classes with JAXB annotations.

In our example we have a simple Contact class with name, surname, birthday and a list of mails.

@XmlRootElement
public class Contact {
        private String name;
        private String surname;
        private Birthday birthday;
        private List<Mail> mail;
       // Add getters & setters
}

And the Birthday class:

@XmlType
public class Birthday {
        private String day;
        private String month;
        private String year;
        // Add getters & setters
}

And the Mail class:

@XmlType
public class Mail {
        public enum MailType { PERSONAL, WORK };
        private String email;
        private MailType type;
        // Add getters & setters
}

STEP 2: Annotate the XML namespace as a package annotation

The package-info.java

@XmlSchema (
                xmlns = {},
                namespace = "http://www.jordeu.net/XSDCREATOR/1.0.0",
                elementFormDefault = XmlNsForm.UNSET,
                attributeFormDefault = XmlNsForm.UNSET
                )
package net.jordeu.codesnips.xsdcreator;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlSchema;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlNsForm;

STEP 3: Config Maven pom.xml
First add this repository to the pom.xml or check that you have it in your settings.xml or proxy repository.

<pluginRepository>
     <id>maven-repository.dev.java.net</id>
     <name>Java.net Maven 2 Repository</name>
     <url>http://download.java.net/maven/2</url>
</pluginRepository>

And add this plugin changing the “includes” section and “schemas” section according to your project name and layout.

<plugin>
     <groupId>com.sun.tools.jxc.maven2</groupId>
     <artifactId>maven-jaxb-schemagen-plugin</artifactId>
     <version>1.2</version>
     <executions>
         <execution>
            <phase>generate-resources</phase>
            <goals>
               <goal>generate</goal>
            </goals>
         </execution>
     </executions>

     <configuration>
        <project>${project}</project>
        <destdir>${project.build.directory}/schemas</destdir>
        <srcdir>${project.build.sourceDirectory}</srcdir>
        <includes>
             <include>net/jordeu/codesnips/xsdcreator/*</include>
        </includes>
        <schemas>
             <schema>
                 <namespace>http://www.jordeu.net/XSDCREATOR/1.0.0</namespace>
                 <file>xsdcreator-v1_0_0.xsd</file>
             </schema>
        </schemas>
        <verbose>true</verbose>
     </configuration>
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
             <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
             <version>2.2</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
             <artifactId>jaxb-xjc</artifactId>
             <version>2.2</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
             <artifactId>jaxb-impl</artifactId>
             <version>2.2</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
             <artifactId>jaxb-xjc</artifactId>
             <version>2.2</version>
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
</plugin>

Checkout the sample project

at https://github.com/jordeu/codesnips